ABAHLALI BASEMJONDOLO MOVEMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA (WESTERN CAPE PROVINCE)
Website: khayelitshastruggles.com or www.abahlali.org
Email: abmwesterncape@abahlali.org office admin: 073 2562 936/ 078 760 5246
To: Provincial Department of Human Settlement
No 27 Wale Street
Cape Town
8001
Attention: MEC for Human Settlement Bonginkosi Madikizela
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape would like your response on the following matters as a matter of urgency.
· The Western Cape had a crisis of housing, as this province already had a backlog of about 500 000 and this number is increasing about 20 000 per annum and the provincial department of human settlement only manage to build up to 16 000 houses per annum to respond to this crisis. In our view we believe that the departmental intervention will not solve the housing crisis in this province and it will take more than 50 years to solve the housing crisis in this province, if not then we demand to know from you:
a) If when do you plan to eradicate the informal settlements through out the province
b) And how do you intend to do it, and we need a clear plan with time lines
· As part of the national standard, people residing within informal settlement are not suppose to access water on a distance more than 100 mitre walking distance, and at least 1 toilet need to be shared by 4 dwelling and a bucket system was supposed to be phased out completely by 2004, and it is shocking to find out that there are people who use toilets which are even below the bucket system by not having toilets at all.
To many of our people these national standards are still a dream not a reality, as most of us still have to walk for a distance which is more than 100 m walking distance in order to access water, and toilets.
And we therefore demand to know from you:
c) if by when your department plans to better off this appalling conditions in which our people continue to live under off with no clear direction.
d) and when do you intend to phase out the bucket system through out the province, and we need a clear plan with all the areas that still use the bucket system and with a clear plan for each area and time lines.
· And most of our settlements continue to be the victims of evictions as most of our settlements are not recognised as legal occupiers And it is a shame for people who are evicted from their areas and sent straight to TRA’s (temporal relocation areas) where people continue to live under worst conditions than those they were living under off.
And we therefore demand that:
e) declare all the temporal relocation areas (TRA’s) as unconstitutional as they are not suitable for human habitant and we therefore call upon you to immediately relocate all those who are currently living in TRA’s into proper houses and do away with TRA’s through out the province.
f) We also call upon you do announce upgrading plan for all informal settlements through out the province with clear outlines.
Abahlali baseMjondolo of the Western Cape has made a serious call of ‘a week of informal settlement strike’ and our alliance partners within Poor Peoples Alliance (which is Abahlali baseMjondolo DBN, Landless Peoples Movement Johannesburg, Rural Network KZN and Anti eviction campaign Western Cape are supporting the call and a Conference for democratic left (which is a affiliates of more than 10 community based organization and independent unions) and Jubilee South Africa are also supporting this call
We will await for your response within a period of 14 days, and should we not hear anything from you within this period we will be left with no choice but to announce the date of a week of informal settlement strike which will result to a complete stand still of the country’s production.
While waiting for your response we will continue engaging with progressive community groups, unions, students movements, none governmental organization and churches to support the call.
On behalf of ABM WC
Mzonke Poni
ABM WC Chairperson
abmwesterncape@abahlali.org or 073 2562 036